One of two leaves of a certificate of discharge from the Roman army, hinged together by wires loope
One of two leaves of a certificate of discharge from the Roman army, hinged together by wires looped through the holes at the corners. This discharge occured under the Emperor Domitian, on November 7, A.D. 88, to Dassio, an auxiliary soldier who served in the army in Syria. Latin inscription on both faces of the plaque (complete and vertical on outside face, abbreviated and horizontal on inside face) - the lettering on the outside, intended for public viewing, was more carefully outlined: “The Emperor Caesar Domitian Augustus Germanicus, son of the deified Vespasian, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician power for the eighth year, acclaimed "Imperator” seventeen times, having been consul fourteen times, censor for life, father of his country, has granted to the infantrymen and cavalry who are serving in five cavalry companies and two infantry, namely, the select Praetorian, the steadfast Gallic and Thracian, the Phrygian, the Sebastena, the Antianan of Gauls and Thracians; the First Gaetulian cohort and the First Augustan Thracian cohort –- which are in Syria serving under Publius Valerius Patruinus –- and likewise to the men honorably discharged from these companies and cohorts who have served twenty-five years (their names are listed below), and to their children and descendants [to these the Emperor has granted] citizenship and the right of Roman marriage with the wives whom they had when citizenship was granted to them or, if any are unmarried, with those women whom they might marry later, with only one wife for each man.Dated on November 7 in the consulship of Manius Otacilius Catulus and Sextus Julius Sparsus (88 A.D.).To the soldier DASSIO, the son of Dasens, a Pannonian of the company of Phruguans commanded by Marcus Helenius Priscus.This copy has been checked against the bronze tablet posted at Rome on the Capitol on the left side wall of the Public Record Office.“© The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles -- source link
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